Manic Street Preachers play 'National Treasures' set at London's O2

Super Furry Animals star Gruff Rhys joined the band for Know Your Enemy track 'Let Robeson Sing'. The Cardigans' Nina Persson guest-starred to reprise her vocals on the band's 2007 single 'Your Love Alone Is Not Enough'.

Manic Street Preachers opened the set with 'You Stole The Sun From My Heart' and then launched straight into 'Love's Sweet Exile'.

"There's many songs that some of you might go to the bar for," quipped frontman James Dean Bradfield before kicking into 'Motorcycle Emptiness'. "But this one I think everybody stays for."

Between 'Everything Must Go' and 'She Is Suffering', Bradfield thanked fans for coming to celebrate the passing of the "situationist express little pill that was the punk pop rock 'n' roll single".

"We'll be playing 38 of the f**kers tonight," he added.

After Rhys joined the band to play guitar and sing on 'Let Robeson Sing', bassist Nicky Wire said: "From one pure Welsh genius, to another - Mr Richard Edwards. Here's his f**king masterpiece. 'Faster'."

Following a cover of The The's 'This Is The Day', Wire said: "I can't wait to get into a f**king dress, I've got to be honest with you. What about you, James?"

Bradfield replied: "There was a little ribbon on the back of my sailor top and he cut it as I went on stage. He said it didn't suit me."

The band closed their first set with their first number one single, 1997's 'If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next'.

After an interval, the group restarted with 'Australia', Gold Against The Soul's standout single 'La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)', 'Found That Soul' and 2002's standalone single 'There By The Grace Of God'.

Introducing 'Theme From M.A.S.H. (Suicide Is Painless)', Bradfield recalled hearing in 1992 that the band had entered the top ten of the UK singles chart for the first time.

"We were in Hamburg," he said. "Staying in some s**te B&B, somebody getting banged next door all night. And I was thinking 'You might be getting laid, but I'm in the top ten'."

Wire then told the crowd about the time he was getting ready for a festival in Portugal when Edwards revealed that he had written a new song.

"He was f**king smashed out of his mind," Wire explained. "So I go into his bedroom and he's eating a kiwi fruit to sober up, because that was his miracle cure.

"He says to me, 'I've got this f**king amazing lyric, Wire'. I was like 'Oh yeah, what's that?' He says, 'It's about group sex in the Kremlin'. Yaay. I said, 'Oh, sounds like a winner to me, Rich'. So here we go, 'Revol'!"

Bradfield then introduced 'So Why So Sad' as a "funny, funny old bird of a song".

"I don't know if any of you really ever f**king liked it to be honest," he quipped before the track. "You still don't much like it, do you?" he joked at the end.

Wire then complained: "In typical fashion, I've totalled my f**king shoulder up during 'Revol'. Should be do f**king yoga or Pilates like Coldplay, shouldn't I?"

Introducing Persson for 'Your Love Alone Is Not Enough', Bradfield claimed that their 2007 duet "made us feel like a different band" and "gave us a new shot of life".

Manic Street Preachers closed with 'A Design For Life', with Bradfield describing still-missing guitarist Edwards as "still an essential molecule of this band".

Countering recent suggestions of a split or extended break, Bradfield then added that he hoped the group would tour Britain again in two years.

After the rest of the band left, Wire stayed to smash up his bass guitar against the stage floor.

"Wish I hadnt smashed one of my fave bass guitars in half- its had it- such is life xx," he wrote on Twitter soon after the show.

The full Manic Street Preachers setlist was as follows:

'You Stole the Sun from My Heart''Love's Sweet Exile''Motorcycle Emptiness''It's Not War (Just The End Of Love)''Everything Must Go''She Is Suffering''From Despair To Where''Autumnsong''Empty Souls''Let Robeson Sing' featuring Gruff Rhys'Faster''Life Becoming A Landslide''Kevin Carter''Little Baby Nothing''This Is The Day''The Everlasting''Indian Summer''Stay Beautiful'If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next'---Interval---'Australia''La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)''Found That Soul''There By The Grace Of God''Some Kind of Nothingness''You Love Us''Theme From M.A.S.H. (Suicide Is Painless)''Revol''The Love of Richard Nixon''Ocean Spray''The Masses Against the Classes''Roses In The Hospital''So Why So Sad''Postcards from A Young Man'''Your Love Alone Is Not Enough' featuring Nina Persson'Slash 'n' Burn''Tsunami''Motown Junk''A Design For Life'